The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has brushed aside suggestions of a quid pro quo with the Congress for supporting the ordinance on the Food Security Bill that was cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.
NCP chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who had emphasised his disagreement on the introduction of an ordinance, suggested that the matter be resolved rather through discussion and debate in Parliament.
According to reports, NCP leader Shriniwas Patil, a former bureaucrat and two-time MP from Karad, was appointed as Sikkim Governor to placate Mr. Pawar, who was miffed at the government taking the ordinance route.
“There is no truth in the suggestion of a quid pro quo … People will take meanings out of this coincidence. The ordinance was approved by the Cabinet of which the NCP is part,” NCP spokesman Nawab Malik told reporters here on Thursday.
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) could not have got two successive terms without the NCP’s unstinting support, he said.
